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Description/Abstract

Background: Reduced fetal growth is associated with differences in body composition in adult life that may predispose to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Most published data are based on simple anthropometric measures, which incompletely describe body composition.

Objective: The objective was to assess body composition and fat distribution by using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).

Design: This was a case-control study of 64–72-y-old white men (n = 32) with a low (x: 2.76 kg) or high (x: 4.23 kg) birth weight.

Conclusion: Lifelong differences in adult body composition and fat distribution between the low- and high-birth-weight groups are consistent with programming in early life. The use of BMI to predict percentage body fat and the use of the trunk-to-limb skinfold thickness ratio (and waist-to-hip ratio) to predict the trunk-to-limb fat ratio measured by DXA can be misleading when low- and high-birth-weight groups are compared.